my palace, and infused a spirit of mutiny into my body-guard, against my person. Your father was your prisoner; my prime minister, whom I had appointed and adopted into my family, covered with blood, was driven from one danger to another. You dishonoured my grey hairs you despoiled me of the crown, possessed with glory by my ancestors, which they had preserved without a stain. You seated yourself upon my throne, and placed youself at the disposal of the people of Madrid, and of foreign troops, who were then entering the capital.-The conspiracy of the Escurial had already accomplished its purposes. The acts of my administration were brought into public contempt. Old, and oppressed by infirmity, I was not able to surmount this new misfortune. I resorted to the emperor of the French, not as a king at the head of my troops, surrounded by the pomp of royalty; but as an unhappy and abandoned prince. I have found refuge and protection in the midst of his camp. I owe to him my own life, that of the queen, and that of the prime minister. I have arrived at last at Bayonne, and you have so conducted this negoci. ation, that every thing depends upon the mediation and protection of this great prince. The idea of resorting to popular agitation would tend to the ruin of Spain, and expose yourself, my kingdom, my subjects and my family, to the most horrible catastrophes. My heart has been fully unfolded to the emperor; he knows all the injuries I have re ceived, and the violence that has been done to me; he has declared to me, that you shall never be ac knowledged as king, "aud that the

enemy of his father can never ac quire the confidence of foreign states. He has, in addition to this, shewn me letters written with your own hand, which clearly shew your aversion to France.-Things being thus situated, my rights are clear, and my duties are much more so. It is incumbent on me, to prevent the shedding of the blood of my subjects, to do nothing at the conclusion of my career, which shall carry fire and sword into every part of Spain, and reduce it to the most horrible misery. Certainly, if faithful to your primary obligations, and to the feelings of nature, you had rejected those perfidious counsels, and placed yourself constantly at my side, for the defence of your fa. ther, you had waited the regular course of nature, which would have elevated you in a few years to the rank of royalty. I should have been able to conciliate the policy and interests of Spain, with that of all. For six months, no doubt, matters have been in a critical situation; but notwithstanding such difficulties, I should have obtained the support of my subjects; I should have availed myself of the weak means which yet remained to me, of the moral aid which I should have acquired, meeting always my ally with suitable dignity, to whom I never gave cause of complaint; and an arrangement would have been made which would have accommo. dated the interests of my subjects to those of my family. But in tearing from my head the crown, you have not preserved it for yourself; you have taken from it all that is august and sacred in the eyes of mankind.-Your behaviour with respect to me, your intercepted let

ters,

Y honoured father and lord;

tween yourself and the throne of Spain, and it is neither your own interest nor that of the country that you should reign in it." Avoid lighting a fire which will unavoidably cause your complete ruin, and the degradation of Spain.-I am king by the right given me by my forefathers my abdication was the result of force and violence; I have nothing to receive from you; nor can I consent to the convocation of the cortes, an additional absurdity, suggested by the inexperienced persons who attend you. I have reigned for the happiness of my subjects, and I do not wish to be. queath them civil war, mutiny, popular juntas, and revolution. Every thing should be done for the people, and nothing by the people: to forget this maxim, were to become the accomplice of all the crime, that must follow its neglect. I have sacrificed the whole of my life to my people; and in the advanced age to which I have arrived, I shall do no. thing in opposition to their religion, their tranquillity and their happi. ness. I have reigned for them; I will constantly occupy myself for their sakes; I will forget all my sacrifices; and when at last I shall be convinced that the religion of Spain, the integrity of her provinces, her independence, and her privile ges are preserved, I shall descend to the tomb, forgiving those who have embittered the last years of my life.-Dated from the imperial palace of Bayonne, called the Govern ment Palace, May 2, 1808.

Letter written by King Ferdinand VII. to his august Father, in answer to the preceding.

-

majesty condescended to write to me, dated yesterday, and I will endeavour to answer all the particulars with that moderation and respect which is due to your majesty. Your majesty speaks, in the first place, with respect to the alteration in your political conduct towards France, after the peace of Basle ; and, in truth, I believe there is no individual in Spain who has complained of it; rather all were unanimoes in praising your majesty for your confidence in, and fidelity to the principles you had adopted. Mine, in particular, were entirely 'similar to your own; and I have given irrefragable proofs of it from the moment when your majesty abdicated the throne in my favour. -Had the affair of the Escurial, which your majesty states, origina. ted in the hatred with which my wife inspired me against France, your ministers, my beloved mother, and your royal self, been examined with all the legal forms, it would have evidently proved the contrary. Notwithstanding I had not the least influence, and no liberty beyond the shew of it,-guarded, as I was, by domestics whom you put round me; yet the eleven counsellors chosen by your majesty were una nimously of opinion, that there was no ground for the accusation, and that the supposed criminals were innocent.-Your majesty talks of the distrust created by the entrance of so many foreign troops into Spain; and that if your majesty recalled from Portugal your troops, and united those that were in Madrid, at Aranjuez, and its neigh. bourhood, it was not to abandon

your

fore, and there placed a French gar rison, this was in a manner putting myself into his hands. During the two days I resided in my capital, I was informed of the particular cor. respondence which your majesty kept up with the emperor of the French, and learnt that you had demanded for me as a consort a princess of the imperial family; in order thereby to strengthen and secure the intimate alliance and union that ought to subsist between the two states. In unreserved and perfect conformity with your majesty's principles and wishes, I wrote to the emperor, demanding that princess in marriage.

I sent a deputation to Bayonne, to pay compliments in my name to his imperial and royal majesty: and in a short time thereafter, I engaged my dear brother, the infant don Carlos, to proceed, in order to present his respects to the emperor on his arrival at the frontier. Nor was this all; I left Madrid on the assurances of the imperial ambassador, the grand duke of Berg, and general Savary, who had just come from Paris, and who solicited an audience for the pur. pose of declaring to me, on the part of the emperor, that his imperial majesty had nothing to desire of me, other than to know, whether I was to adopt the same system with regard to France, that had been followed by your majesty. That in this case he would recognise me as king of Spain, and that every thing else should be forgotten. Full of confidence in these promises, and persuaded that I should meet his imperial majesty on the way, I arrived in this city; and on the very day of my arrival, propositions

were made to some individuals of my suite, wholly different from those that had been so recently communicated to me, and which neither my honour, nor conscience, nor duty, permitted me to accept from the moment the cortes swore allegiance to me as their lord and their sovereign; and which, besides, were inconsistent with the oath I took when I accepted the crown which your majesty abdicated in my favour. I cannot conceive how any letters of mine could fall into the hands of the emperor, that could evince my hatred against France, when I have given so many proofs of my friendship for her, and that I have never written any thing that could indicate such a disposition.

I have been lately shewn a copy of a protest addressed by your ma jesty to the emperor, intended to establish the nullity of your abdi. cation. And yet, since your arrival in this city, when I questioned your majesty on this subject, you told me positively that your abdication was indeed voluntary, though you had not a mind to persist in it. It was impossible to know your majesty's intention to resume the reins of government; you expressly told me, on the contrary, that you would neither reign, nor return to Spain. In the letter which I have the honour to transmit to your ma jesty, in support of this, I signified my readiness to resign the crown to your majesty on the assembling of the cortes; and if they should not be assembled on the meeting of the deputies and council of the king. dom, not that I deemed this neces. sary to the validity of the renuncia. tion, but because I thought it of

'utility,

utility, for the prevention of those dangerous innovations which often breed divisions and complaints, and in order that every thing might be done in a manner suitable to your majesty's dignity, my own honour, and the tranquillity of the kingdom. If your majesty does not think it eligible to reign in person, I will conduct the government, either in your majesty's name, or in my own; for your majesty cannot be represented by any other person than myself, who possess, in my favour, the decision of the laws, and the voice of the people. Farther still, no one has so great an interest as myself in the prosperity of Spain.

I again declare to your majesty, that in the present circumstances, and on these conditions, I am ready to accompany your majesty to Spain, and there to make my abdi. cation in the form I have just pointed out. With regard to what your majesty has said about not returning to Spain, I conjure you, with tears in my eyes, in the name of all that is sacred in heaven or on earth, that in case you should not chuse to re-ascend the throne, you will, nevertheless, not abandon a country in which you have for 'so many years resided, in which you may chuse whatever situation may be thought most suitable to your impaired health, and where you will find greater tranquillity of mind, and more enjoyment than in any other.

In fine, I implore your majesty, with the most tender affection, to consider seriously the situation in which you now stand, and to reflect, that the question now to be decided is nothing less than whether our dynasty shall be excluded from the throne of Spain, and that of the

imperial family of France substituted in its stead. Such a step your ma. jesty cannot take without the formal consent of all the individuals who either have, or may have, rights of succession to the crown; still less without the consent equally formal of the Spanish nation assembled in the cortez, in a place where the public voice may be freely raised, and distinctly heard. Besides this, as we are now in a strange land, it would be impossible to persuade any one, that our conduct was free from constraint. This consideration would alone suffice to annul every deed of ours, and to produce the most fatal consequences.

Before concluding this letter, your majesty will permit me to say, that the counsellors you call perfidious, never induced or influenced me to abate of that love, respect, and fidelity, which I have always shewn for your majesty's person, whom I pray God to bless, and to preserve to the most advanced agc. I throw myself at your majesty's feet, and am your majesty's devoted son, FERDINAND.

Bayonne, May 4, 1808.